Enhanced Multicarrier Transmission Using Orthogonal Subcarriers

ABSTRACT

A device transmits and/or receives voice packets on a first plurality of subcarriers. There is no guard band between any two subcarriers in the first plurality of subcarriers. The device transmits and/or receives a first subset of data packets on a second plurality of subcarriers and a second subset of the data packets on a third plurality of subcarriers. The following limitations may apply: a) there is no guard band between any two subcarriers in the second plurality of subcarriers, and b) there is at least a guard band between at least two subcarriers in the third plurality of subcarriers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/US 12/38934, filed May 22, 2012, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/632,404, filed Jun. 4, 2011, and U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/500,740, filed Jun. 24, 2011, and U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/511,542, filed Jul. 25, 2011, which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Examples of several of the various embodiments of the present inventionare described herein with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting example sets of OFDM subcarriers as per anaspect of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram depicting an example transmission time and receptiontime for two carriers as per an aspect of an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram depicting OFDM radio resources as per an aspect ofan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a base station and a wireless device as peran aspect of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting a system for transmitting datatraffic over an OFDM radio system as per an aspect of an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram depicting an example set of logical subcarriers andan example set of physical subcarriers as per an aspect of an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram depicting transmission of voice and/or videotraffic and data traffic as per an aspect of an embodiment of thepresent invention; and

FIG. 8 depicts an example message flow between a base station, awireless device and one or more servers, as per an aspect of anembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Example embodiments of the present invention transmit and/or receivevoice and/or data packets in a communication system. Embodiments of thetechnology disclosed herein may be employed in the technical field ofmulticarrier communication systems. More particularly, embodiments ofthe technology disclosed herein may relate to enhancing packettransmission and/or reception using a multicarrier communication system.

Example embodiments of the invention may be implemented using variousphysical layer modulation and transmission mechanisms. Exampletransmission mechanisms may include, but are not limited to: CDMA (codedivision multiple access), OFDM (orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing), TDMA (time division multiple access), Wavelettechnologies, and/or the like. Hybrid transmission mechanisms such asTDMA/CDMA, and OFDM/CDMA may also be employed. Various modulationschemes may be applied for signal transmission in the physical layer.Examples of modulation schemes include, but are not limited to: phase,amplitude, code, a combination of these, and/or the like. An exampleradio transmission method may implement QAM (quadrature amplitudemodulation) using BPSK (binary phase shift keying), QPSK (quadraturephase shift keying), 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, and/or the like. Physicalradio transmission may be enhanced by dynamically or semi-dynamicallychanging the modulation and coding scheme depending on transmissionrequirements and radio conditions.

FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting example sets of OFDM subcarriers as per anaspect of an embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in thisexample, arrow(s) in the diagram may depict a subcarrier in amulticarrier OFDM system. The OFDM system may use technology such asOFDM technology, SC-OFDM (single carrier-OFDM) technology, or the like.For example, arrow 101 shows a subcarrier transmitting informationsymbols. FIG. 1 is for illustration purposes, and a typical multicarrierOFDM system may include more subcarriers in a carrier. For example, thenumber of subcarriers in a carrier may be in the range of 10 to 10,000subcarriers. FIG. 1 shows two guard bands 106 and 107 in a transmissionband. As illustrated in FIG. 1, guard band 106 is between subcarriers103 and subcarriers 104. The example set of subcarriers A 102 includessubcarriers 103 and subcarriers 104. FIG. 1 also illustrates an exampleset of subcarriers B 105. As illustrated, there is no guard band betweenany two subcarriers in the example set of subcarriers B 105. Carriers ina multicarrier OFDM communication system may be contiguous carriers,non-contiguous carriers, or a combination of both contiguous andnon-contiguous carriers.

FIG. 2 is a diagram depicting an example transmission time and receptiontime for two carriers as per an aspect of an embodiment of the presentinvention. A multicarrier OFDM communication system may include one ormore carriers, for example, ranging from 1 to 10 carriers. Carrier A 204and carrier B 205 may have the same or different timing structures.Although FIG. 2 shows two synchronized carriers, carrier A 204 andcarrier B 205 may or may not be synchronized with each other. Differentradio frame structures may be supported for FDD (frequency divisionduplex) and TDD (time division duplex) duplex mechanisms. FIG. 2 showsan example FDD frame timing. Downlink and uplink transmissions may beorganized into radio frames 201. In this example, radio frame durationis 10 msec. Other frame durations, for example, in the range of 1 to 100msec may also be supported. In this example, each 10 ms radio frame 201may be divided into ten equally sized subframes 202. Other subframedurations such as including 0.5 msec, 1 msec, 2 msec, and 5 msec mayalso be supported. Sub-frame(s) may consist of two or more slots 206.For the example of FDD, 10 subframes may be available for downlinktransmission and 10 subframes may be available for uplink transmissionsin each 10 ms interval. Uplink and downlink transmissions may beseparated in the frequency domain. Slot(s) may include a plurality ofOFDM symbols 203. The number of OFDM symbols 203 in a slot 206 maydepend on the cyclic prefix length and subcarrier spacing.

In an example case of TDD, uplink and downlink transmissions may beseparated in the time domain. According to some of the various aspectsof embodiments, each 10 ms radio frame may include two half-frames of 5ms each. Half-frame(s) may include eight slots of length 0.5 ms andthree special fields: DwPTS (Downlink Pilot Time Slot), GP (GuardPeriod) and UpPTS (Uplink Pilot Time Slot). The length of DwPTS andUpPTS may be configurable subject to the total length of DwPTS, GP andUpPTS being equal to 1 ms. Both 5 ms and 10 ms switch-point periodicitymay be supported. In an example, subframe 1 in all configurations andsubframe 6 in configurations with 5 ms switch-point periodicity mayinclude DwPTS, GP and UpPTS. Subframe 6 in configurations with 10 msswitch-point periodicity may include DwPTS. Other subframes may includetwo equally sized slots. For this TDD example, GP may be employed fordownlink to uplink transition. Other subframes/fields may be assignedfor either downlink or uplink transmission. Other frame structures inaddition to the above two frame structures may also be supported, forexample in one example embodiment the frame duration may be selecteddynamically based on the packet sizes.

FIG. 3 is a diagram depicting OFDM radio resources as per an aspect ofan embodiment of the present invention. The resource grid structure intime 304 and frequency 305 is illustrated in FIG. 3. The quantity ofdownlink subcarriers or resource blocks (RB) (in this example 6 to 100RBs) may depend, at least in part, on the downlink transmissionbandwidth 306 configured in the cell. The smallest radio resource unitmay be called a resource element (e.g. 301). Resource elements may begrouped into resource blocks (e.g. 302). Resource blocks may be groupedinto larger radio resources called Resource Block Groups (RBG) (e.g.303). The transmitted signal in slot 206 may be described by one orseveral resource grids of a plurality of subcarriers and a plurality ofOFDM symbols. Resource blocks may be used to describe the mapping ofcertain physical channels to resource elements. Other predefinedgroupings of physical resource elements may be implemented in the systemdepending on the radio technology. For example, 24 subcarriers may begrouped as a radio block for a duration of 5 msec.

Physical and virtual resource blocks may be defined. A physical resourceblock may be defined as N consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domainand M consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain, wherein M and Nare integers. A physical resource block may include M×N resourceelements. In an illustrative example, a resource block may correspond toone slot in the time domain and 180 kHz in the frequency domain (for 15KHz subcarrier bandwidth and 12 subcarriers). A virtual resource blockmay be of the same size as a physical resource block. Various types ofvirtual resource blocks may be defined (e.g. virtual resource blocks oflocalized type and virtual resource blocks of distributed type). Forvarious types of virtual resource blocks, a pair of virtual resourceblocks over two slots in a subframe may be assigned together by a singlevirtual resource block number. Virtual resource blocks of localized typemay be mapped directly to physical resource blocks such that sequentialvirtual resource block k corresponds to physical resource block k.Alternatively, virtual resource blocks of distributed type may be mappedto physical resource blocks according to a predefined table or apredefined formula. Various configurations for radio resources may besupported under an OFDM framework, for example, a resource block may bedefined as including the subcarriers in the entire band for an allocatedtime duration.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, an antenna portmay be defined such that the channel over which a symbol on the antennaport is conveyed may be inferred from the channel over which anothersymbol on the same antenna port is conveyed. In some embodiments, theremay be one resource grid per antenna port. The set of antenna port(s)supported may depend on the reference signal configuration in the cell.Cell-specific reference signals may support a configuration of one, two,or four antenna port(s) and may be transmitted on antenna port(s) {0},{0, 1}, and {0, 1, 2, 3}, respectively. Multicast-broadcast referencesignals may be transmitted on antenna port 4. Wireless device-specificreference signals may be transmitted on antenna port(s) 5, 7, 8, or oneor several of ports {7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14}. Positioning referencesignals may be transmitted on antenna port 6. Channel state information(CSI) reference signals may support a configuration of one, two, four oreight antenna port(s) and may be transmitted on antenna port(s) 15, {15,16}, {15, . . . , 18} and {15, . . . , 22}, respectively. Variousconfigurations for antenna configuration may be supported depending onthe number of antennas and the capability of the wireless devices andwireless base stations.

According to some embodiments, a radio resource framework using OFDMtechnology may be employed. Alternative embodiments may be implementedemploying other radio technologies. Example transmission mechanismsinclude, but are not limited to: CDMA, OFDM, TDMA, Wavelet technologies,and/or the like. Hybrid transmission mechanisms such as TDMA/CDMA, andOFDM/CDMA may also be employed.

FIG. 4 is an example block diagram of a base station 401 and a wirelessdevice 406, as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention.A communication network 400 may include at least one base station 401and at least one wireless device 406. The base station 401 may includeat least one communication interface 402, at least one processor 403,and at least one set of program code instructions 405 stored innon-transitory memory 404 and executable by the at least one processor403. The wireless device 406 may include at least one communicationinterface 407, at least one processor 408, and at least one set ofprogram code instructions 410 stored in non-transitory memory 409 andexecutable by the at least one processor 408. Communication interface402 in base station 401 may be configured to engage in communicationwith communication interface 407 in wireless device 406 via acommunication path that includes at least one wireless link 411.Wireless link 411 may be a bi-directional link. Communication interface407 in wireless device 406 may also be configured to engage in acommunication with communication interface 402 in base station 401. Basestation 401 and wireless device 406 may be configured to send andreceive data over wireless link 411 using multiple frequency carriers.According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, transceiver(s)may be employed. A transceiver is a device that includes both atransmitter and receiver. Transceivers may be employed in devices suchas wireless devices, base stations, relay nodes, and/or the like.Example embodiments for radio technology implemented in communicationinterface 402, 407 and wireless link 411 are illustrated are FIG. 1,FIG. 2, and FIG. 3. and associated text.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting a system 500 for transmitting datatraffic generated by a wireless device 502 to a server 508 over amulticarrier OFDM radio according to one aspect of the illustrativeembodiments. The system 500 may include a Wireless CellularNetwork/Internet Network 507, which may function to provide connectivitybetween one or more wireless devices 502 (e.g., a cell phone, PDA(personal digital assistant), other wirelessly-equipped device, and/orthe like), one or more servers 508 (e.g. multimedia server, applicationservers, email servers, or database servers) and/or the like.

It should be understood, however, that this and other arrangementsdescribed herein are set forth for purposes of example only. As such,those skilled in the art will appreciate that other arrangements andother elements (e.g., machines, interfaces, functions, orders offunctions, etc.) may be used instead, some elements may be added, andsome elements may be omitted altogether. Further, as in mosttelecommunications applications, those skilled in the art willappreciate that many of the elements described herein are functionalentities that may be implemented as discrete or distributed componentsor in conjunction with other components, and in any suitable combinationand location. Still further, various functions described herein as beingperformed by one or more entities may be carried out by hardware,firmware and/or software logic in combination with hardware. Forinstance, various functions may be carried out by a processor executinga set of machine language instructions stored in memory.

As shown, the access network may include a plurality of base stations503 . . . 504. Base station 503 . . . 504 of the access network mayfunction to transmit and receive RF (radio frequency) radiation 505 . .. 506 at one or more carrier frequencies, and the RF radiation mayprovide one or more air interfaces over which the wireless device 502may communicate with the base stations 503 . . . 504. The user 501 mayuse the wireless device (or UE: user equipment) to receive data traffic,such as one or more multimedia files, data files, pictures, video files,or voice mails, etc. The wireless device 502 may include applicationssuch as web email, email applications, upload and ftp applications, MMS(multimedia messaging system) applications, or file sharingapplications. In another example embodiment, the wireless device 502 mayautomatically send traffic to a server 508 without direct involvement ofa user. For example, consider a wireless camera with automatic uploadfeature, or a video camera uploading videos to the remote server 508, ora personal computer equipped with an application transmitting traffic toa remote server.

One or more base stations 503 . . . 504 may define a correspondingwireless coverage area. The RF radiation 505 . . . 506 of the basestations 503 . . . 504 may carry communications between the WirelessCellular Network/Internet Network 507 and access device 502 according toany of a variety of protocols. For example, RF radiation 505 . . . 506may carry communications according to WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperabilityfor Microwave Access e.g., IEEE 802.16), LTE (long term evolution),microwave, satellite, MMDS (Multichannel Multipoint DistributionService), Wi-Fi (e.g., IEEE 802.11), Bluetooth, infrared, and otherprotocols now known or later developed. The communication between thewireless device 502 and the server 508 may be enabled by any networkingand transport technology for example TCP/IP (transport controlprotocol/Internet protocol), RTP (real time protocol), RTCP (real timecontrol protocol), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) or any othernetworking protocol.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, an LTE networkmay include many base stations, providing a user plane (PDCP: packetdata convergence protocol/RLC: radio link control/MAC: media accesscontrol/PHY: physical) and control plane (RRC: radio resource control)protocol terminations towards the wireless device. The base station(s)may be interconnected with other base station(s) by means of an X2interface. The base stations may also be connected by means of an S1interface to an EPC (Evolved Packet Core). For example, the basestations may be interconnected to the MME (Mobility Management Entity)by means of the S1-MME interface and to the Serving Gateway (S-GW) bymeans of the S1-U interface. The S1 interface may support a many-to-manyrelation between MMEs/Serving Gateways and base stations. A base stationmay include many sectors for example: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6 sectors. A basestation may include many cells, for example, ranging from 1 to 50 cellsor more. A cell may be categorized, for example, as a primary cell orsecondary cell. When carrier aggregation is configured, a wirelessdevice may have one RRC connection with the network. At RRC connectionestablishment/re-establishment/handover, one serving cell may providethe NAS (non-access stratum) mobility information (e.g. TAI-trackingarea identifier), and at RRC connection re-establishment/handover, oneserving cell may provide the security input. This cell may be referredto as the Primary Cell (PCell). In the downlink, the carriercorresponding to the PCell may be the Downlink Primary Component Carrier(DL PCC), while in the uplink, it may be the Uplink Primary ComponentCarrier (UL PCC). Depending on wireless device capabilities, SecondaryCells (SCells) may be configured to form together with the PCell a setof serving cells. In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to an SCellmay be a Downlink Secondary Component Carrier (DL SCC), while in theuplink, it may be an Uplink Secondary Component Carrier (UL SCC). AnSCell may or may not have an uplink carrier.

Embodiments may be configured to operate as needed. The disclosedmechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met, for example,in wireless device, base station, radio environment, network, acombination of the above, and/or the like. Example criteria may bebased, at least in part, on for example, traffic load, system set up,packet sizes, traffic characteristics, a combination of the above,and/or the like. When the one or more criteria are met, the exampleembodiments may be applied. Therefore, it may be possible to implementexample embodiments that selectively implement disclosed protocols.

Example embodiments of the invention may enable transmission and/orreception of packets in a multicarrier communication system. Otherexample embodiments may comprise a non-transitory tangible computerreadable media comprising instructions executable by one or moreprocessors to cause transmission and/or reception of packets in amulticarrier communication system. Yet other example embodiments maycomprise an article of manufacture that comprises a non-transitorytangible computer readable machine-accessible medium having instructionsencoded thereon for enabling programmable hardware to cause a device(e.g. wireless communicator, UE, base station, etc.) to transmit and/orreceive packets in a multicarrier communication system. The device mayinclude processors, memory, interfaces, and/or the like. Other exampleembodiments may comprise communication networks comprising devices suchas base stations, wireless devices (UE), servers, switches, antennas,and/or the like.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the voicetraffic may include a plurality of talking periods. Each of theplurality of talking periods may include a plurality of encrypted voicepackets. The data traffic may include a plurality of encrypted datapackets. Voice and data packets may be encrypted before transmission tosecure the packets from unwanted receivers. The desired recipient may beable to decrypt the packets. Encryption may be optional and voice and/ordata packets may be transmitted without encryption. If encryption is notenabled, the receiver may not need to decrypt the received packets. Theexample embodiments of the specification may apply to transmitters thattransmit encrypted voice and/or data traffic and may also apply totransmitters that transmit unencrypted voice and/or data traffic.

According to some of the various embodiments, a transmitter may transmitthe plurality of encrypted voice packets of a talking period on a firstplurality of subcarriers. The first plurality of subcarriers may beassigned to the talking period in a set of substantially equally spacedsubframes. There may be no guard band between any two subcarriers in thefirst plurality of subcarriers. In some other embodiments, the subframesfor transmission may not be equally spaced. The base station packetscheduler may make the decision on which subframe is used for packettransmission. A base station may schedule the first transmission ofvoice packets in equally spaced subframes, and dynamically scheduleretransmissions of voice packets. The retransmission packets may or maynot be in equally spaced subframes. If a voice packet is notsuccessfully decoded in the receiver, the transmitter may retransmit thevoice packet using HARQ and/or ARQ retransmission techniques.

Example embodiments for voice and/or data transmission is presented inthis specification. Voice traffic may be an example real-timeapplication traffic. In some other embodiments, multimedia traffic, suchas video-call traffic, may be scheduled for transmission in parallelwith data traffic. Processes related to at least one talking period of avoice call may be applied to a process on at least one activity periodin a video-call. Other examples may include transmission of data trafficand other types of multimedia traffic with low to moderate bit rates. Inan example embodiment, the mechanism may be applied to two types oftraffic, a type 1 traffic (for example, voice, video, music, and/or thelike) and type 2 traffic (for example, data, http, file transfer, email,and/or the like). The categorization may not be limited to theseexamples. In an example embodiment, video may be considered as type 1traffic and may be transmitted on one carrier. In another exampleembodiment, video may be considered type 2 traffic and may betransmitted on multiple carriers. In another example, type 1 traffic maybe LTE non-GBR (non-guaranteed bit rate) traffic and type 2 traffic maybe LTE GBR traffic.

All the voice packets in a given talking period may be transmitted usingthe first plurality of subcarriers. While at least some of the pluralityof encrypted voice packets are transmitted, the transmitter may transmita first subset of the plurality of encrypted data packets on a secondplurality of subcarriers in a first time period and a second subset ofthe plurality of encrypted data packets on a third plurality ofsubcarriers in a second time period according to a scheduler decision.The transmitter may consider at least one and/or all of the followingconstraints in transmitting the data packets: a) The first time periodand the second time period may not overlap, b) there may be no guardband between any two subcarriers in the second plurality of subcarriers,and c) there may be at least a guard band between at least twosubcarriers in the third plurality of subcarriers. Such a schedulingalgorithm may enable the base station to assign subcarriers for packettransmission to increase bandwidth efficiency in the system. Thisproposed transmission mechanism may provide a set of constraints forassigning wireless physical resources (subframes and subcarriers) tovoice and data packet transmission that may result in increased overallair interface capacity.

According to some of the various embodiments, the voice packets may betransmitted on subcarriers of a first carrier. The first subset of theplurality of encrypted data packets may be transmitted on subcarriers ofthe same first carrier as the voice packets. There may be no guard bandbetween any two subcarriers used for transmission of the voice and thefirst subset of the plurality of encrypted data packets. Voice packetsand data packets may use different subcarriers. After the first timeperiod, the base station may transmit an activation command to thewireless device to cause activation of at least one additional carrier.The second subset of the plurality of encrypted data packets may betransmitted on subcarriers of the first carrier and at least one of theat least one additional carrier. After the activation of the additionalcarriers, the voice packets of a talking period may be transmitted onthe first carrier. Transmission of subsequent talking periods may alsobe on subcarriers of the first carrier. The second subset of datapackets may be transmitted on a second plurality of subcarriers of thefirst carrier and at least one of the at least one additional carrier.There may be at least one guard band between at least two subcarriers inthe second plurality of second subcarriers. Voice packets of subsequenttalking periods may be transmitted on other carriers, depending onchannel condition, mobility of the wireless device, or load balancing.In an example embodiment, data traffic may be IMS data traffic, HTTPtraffic, RTP traffic, and/or the like.

According to some of the various embodiments, the transmitter may be apart of a base station and the receiver may be a part of a wirelessdevice. The base station may transmit at least one control message to awireless device on the first carrier. The base station may configuremeasurement parameters of the wireless device. The measurementconfiguration may trigger measurements of signal quality of at least oneadditional carrier in the plurality of carriers. The base station mayreceive at least one measurement report from the wireless device inresponse to the second control message. The at least one measurementreport may comprise signal quality information of a first plurality ofOFDM subcarriers of at least one additional carrier. The base stationmay transmit an activation command to the wireless device, if the atleast one measurement report indicates an acceptable signal quality fora second carrier in the at least one additional carrier. The activationcommand may cause activation of the second carrier for the wirelessdevice. The base station may transmit the second subset of the pluralityof data packets to the wireless device on a second plurality of OFDMsubcarriers in the first carrier and the second carrier. In anotherexample embodiment, the transmitter may be a part of a wireless deviceand the receiver may be a part of a base station. According to some ofthe various embodiments, the transmitter may correspond to uplinktransmission (in a wireless device) and/or downlink transmission (in abase station). In another example, the receiver may correspond to uplinkreception (in a base station) and/or downlink reception (in a wirelessdevice).

The method to assign encrypted data packets to the first subset orsecond subset may be executed by the MAC layer scheduler. The decisionon assigning a packet to the first or second subset may be made based ondata packet size, resources required for transmission of data packets(number of radio resource blocks), modulation and coding assigned toeach data packet, QoS required by the data packets (i.e. QoS parametersassigned to data packet bearer), the service class of the subscribertransmitting or receiving the data packet, or subscriber devicecapability, or a combination of the above. For example, data packetstransmitted to a device with limited capability may be assigned to thefirst carrier, and data packets transmitted to a device with moreelaborate capabilities may be assigned to the first and/or secondcarriers.

FIG. 7 is an example block diagram depicting transmission of voiceand/or video traffic and data traffic as per an aspect of an embodimentof the present invention. In this figure: UE1 refers to a first wirelessdevice; and UE2 refers to a second wireless device. Voice and/or videotraffic 702 intended for UE1 may be encrypted by encryptor 712. Datatraffic 704 intended for UE1 may be encrypted by encryptor 714. Voiceand/or video traffic 706 intended for UE2 may be encrypted by encryptor716. Data traffic 708 intended for UE2 may be encrypted by encryptor718. The encrypted packets 722, 724, 726, 728 may be routed through RLClayers to a MAC layer that may include base station scheduler 730. Basestation scheduler 730 may forward scheduled MAC packets 735 tomulticarrier transmitter 740. Multicarrier transmitter 740 may transmitsubcarriers 740 containing MAC packets 735 to UE1 and UE2.

According to some of the various embodiments, wireless devices (forexample: UE1, UE2) communicating with a base station may supportdifferent releases of LTE technology. For example, UE2 may supportreleases 8, 9, 10, or above of LTE, and UE1 may support releases 8, 9(or for example may support release 8, or may support 8 & 9). In anotherexample, user terminals (for example: UE1, UE2) communicating with abase station may support different capabilities of LTE technology. Forexample, UE2 may support carrier aggregation of multiple carriers, andUE1 may not support carrier aggregation of multiple carriers. UE1 mayreceive encrypted voice packets and data packets destined to UE1 onsubcarriers of a single carrier. UE2 may receive voice packets onsubcarriers of a first carrier. The first subset of encrypted datapackets destined to UE2 may be transmitted on subcarriers of the samefirst carrier as the voice packets. Voice packets and data packets mayuse different subcarriers. After the first time period the base stationmay transmit an activation command to UE2 to activate at least oneadditional carrier. The second subset of encrypted data packets destinedto UE2 may be transmitted on subcarriers of the first carrier and atleast one of the at least one additional carrier. Packets may betransmitted on the first carrier and the at least one additional carrieraccording to a base station packet scheduler decision.

In this specification, packets may be referred to Service Data Units orProtocols Data Units at Layer 1, Layer 2 or Layer 3 of thecommunications network. Layer 2 in an LTE network includes threesub-layers: PDCP sub-layer, RLC sub-layer, and MAC sub-layer. A layer 2packet may be a PDCP packet, an RLC packet or a MAC layer packet. Layer3 in an LTE network may be Internet Protocol (IP) layer, and therefore alayer 3 packet may be an IP voice packet or an IP data packet. Packetsmay be transmitted and received via the air interface physical layer. Apacket at the physical layer and/or MAC layer may be called a transportblock. The methods and systems disclosed in this specification could beimplemented at one or many different communication network layers. Forexample, some of the steps may be executed by the PDCP layer and someothers by the MAC layer. In another example, a packet may refer to atransport block transmitted on LTE physical layer.

FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting example sets of OFDM subcarriers as per anaspect of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 depicts anexample set of contiguous subcarriers and an example set ofnon-contiguous subcarriers separated by a guard band. Each arrow in thediagram depicts a subcarrier. For example, arrow 101 shows a subcarrierthat may transmit information symbols. FIG. 1 shows two guard bands 106and 107 in the transmission band. As illustrated in FIG. 1, guard band106 is between the set of non-contiguous subcarriers A 102. The set ofnon-contiguous subcarriers 102 includes subcarriers 103 and subcarriers104. FIG. 1 also illustrates a set of contiguous subcarriers B 105.There may be no guard band between any two subcarriers in a set ofcontiguous subcarriers, and the subcarriers are contiguous in thefrequency band.

A guard band is a frequency region between two carriers which may not beassigned for transmission of data or control signals. For example, aguard band may include at least one null subcarrier. For example, in LTEtechnology, there may be at least one null subcarrier at each end of acarrier. When there is guard band between two carriers, the two carriersmay be in the same frequency band or different frequency bands. Forexample, when there is a guard band between two carriers, there may beone or more guard bands and one or more other carriers between the twocarriers.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the pluralityof voice packets may be encrypted using a first encryption key and atleast one first parameter, and the plurality of data packets may beencrypted using the first encryption key and at least one secondparameter, which may be different than the first parameter. Theplurality of voice packets may be encrypted using an additionalparameter that changes substantially rapidly over time. The plurality ofdata packets may be encrypted using an additional parameter that changessubstantially rapidly over time. This encryption mechanism may provide atransmission that could not be easily eavesdropped by unwantedreceivers. The first and second parameters may not be the same and thismay make the encryption input parameters different for voice and datapackets. Furthermore, including additional parameters in encryptionmodule that changes substantially rapidly in time may enhance thesecurity mechanism. An example varying parameter may be a type of systemcounter. The encryption may be provided by the PDCP layer between thetransmitter and receiver. Additional overhead added to the transmissionpackets by the lower layers such as RLC, MAC, and Physical layer may notbe encrypted before transmission. In another example embodiment,encryption may not be enabled for voice and/or data packets.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a receiver mayreceive the plurality of encrypted voice packets of a talking period ona first plurality of subcarriers. The first plurality of subcarriers maybe assigned to the talking period in a set of substantially equallyspaced subframes. There may be no guard band between any two subcarriersin the first plurality of subcarriers. In some other embodiments, thesubframes for reception may not be equally spaced. The base stationscheduler may make the decision on which subframe is used for packettransmission. A base station may schedule the first transmission ofvoice packets in equally spaced subframes, and dynamically scheduleretransmissions of voice packets. The retransmission packets may or maynot be in equally spaced subframes. If a voice packet is notsuccessfully decoded in the receiver, the transmitter may retransmit thevoice packet using HARQ and/or ARQ retransmission techniques.

While at least some of the plurality of encrypted voice packets arereceived, the receiver may receive a first subset of the plurality ofencrypted data packets on a second plurality of subcarriers in a firsttime period and a second subset of the plurality of encrypted datapackets on a third plurality of subcarriers in a second time periodaccording to a packet scheduler decision. The receiver may consider atleast one and/or all of the following constraints in receiving the datapackets: a) the first time period and the second time period may notoverlap, b) there may be no guard band between any two subcarriers inthe second plurality of subcarriers, and c) there may be at least aguard band between at least two subcarriers in the third plurality ofsubcarriers.

The method to assign encrypted data packets to the first subset orsecond subset may be executed by the MAC layer scheduler. The decisionon assigning a packets to the first or second subset may be made basedon data packet size, resources required for transmission of data packets(number of radio resource blocks), modulation and coding assigned toeach data packet, QoS required by the data packets (i.e. QoS parametersassigned to data packet bearer), the service class of the subscribertransmitting or receiving the data packet, subscriber device capability,a combination of the above, and/or the like. For example, data packetsreceived from a device with limited capability may be assigned to thefirst carrier, and data packets received from a device with multicarriercapabilities may be assigned to the first and/or second carrier.

The plurality of encrypted voice packets may be decrypted using a firstdecryption key and at least one first parameter, and plurality ofencrypted data packets may be decrypted using the first decryption keyand at least one second parameter, which may be different than the firstparameter. The plurality of voice packets may be decrypted using anadditional parameter that may change substantially rapidly over time.The plurality of data packets may be decrypted using an additionalparameter that may change substantially rapidly over time.

In the above transmitter and receiver example embodiments, each of thefirst, second, and third plurality of subcarriers may be a plurality ofOFDM subcarriers. In other example embodiments, each of the first,second, and third plurality of subcarriers may be a plurality of SC-FDMAsubcarriers.

According to some of the various embodiments, each of the first, second,and third plurality of subcarriers may be a plurality of physicalsubcarriers. In another example embodiment, each of the first, second,and third plurality of subcarriers may be a plurality of virtual orlogical subcarriers.

“Virtual subcarriers” and “logical subcarriers” both may imply the samemeaning in this disclosure. Physical subcarriers are the subcarriersthat may be used for packet transmission in the physical layer. Therelation between the logical subcarriers and physical subcarriers may bedefined by tables and calculation rules, and may depend on differentparameters (type of transmission, base station, user equipment ID's,and/or the like). Use of virtual subcarriers may provide frequencydiversity in the system. For example, a set of contiguous virtualsubcarriers assigned for a packet transmission may not be physicallycontiguous when mapped to physical subcarriers for transmission.

FIG. 6 is a diagram depicting an example set of logical subcarriers andan example set of physical subcarriers. Logical subcarriers 605 may bemapped to physical subcarriers 606. As an example, the set of logicalsubcarriers 609 may be mapped to the set of physical subcarriers 614.And the set of logical subcarriers 608 may be mapped to the set ofphysical subcarriers 607. The subcarriers 610 and 611 may be contiguousin the logical domain, but when mapped to physical subcarriers, 613 and612 may no longer be considered contiguous in the physical domain.

The scheduler may allocate logical subcarriers to voice and datapackets. Those allocated logical subcarriers may be mapped to thephysical layer for transmission by the wireless interface. As anexample, the set of contiguous logical subcarriers 603 may be assignedfor a packet transmission. Logical subcarriers 603 may be mapped tonon-contiguous physical subcarriers. In another example, the set ofnon-contiguous logical subcarriers 601 may be assigned for a packettransmission. Non-contiguous logical subcarriers 601 include two subsets604 and 602.

The plurality of voice packets may be mapped to a first pre-establishedbearer using packet protocol headers of the plurality of voice packets,and the plurality of data packets may be mapped to a secondpre-established bearer using packet protocol headers of the plurality ofdata packets. Packet protocol headers may be used to distinguish voicepackets from data packets. A voice packet bearer may have different QoSparameters when compared with a data packet bearer. Assigning voice anddata packets to different bearers may allow the base station to manageQoS more efficiently. Example embodiments may apply to physicalsubcarriers or logical subcarriers according to the transmitter andscheduler configuration parameters.

The first pre-established bearer may be a GBR bearer and the secondpre-established bearer may be a non-GBR bearer. A GBR or guaranteed bitrate bearer may be used for transfer of real-time packets, and a non-GBRbearer may be used for transfer of non-real-time packets. The secondpre-established bearer (non-GBR bearer) may be assigned a plurality ofattributes including: a scheduling priority, an allocation and retentionpriority, and/or a portable device aggregate maximum bit rate. Theseparameters may be used by the scheduler in scheduling non-GBR packets.GBR bearers may be assigned attributes such as delay, jitter, packetloss parameters and/or the like.

The first plurality of subcarriers, the second plurality of subcarriers,and the third plurality of subcarriers may include data subcarriersymbols and pilot subcarrier symbols. Pilot symbols may not carry userdata, and may be included in the transmission to help the receiver toperform synchronization, channel estimation, signal quality detection,and/or the like. Base stations and mobile stations may use differentmethods to generate and transmit pilot symbols along with informationsymbols.

According to some of the various embodiments, a device for transmissionof voice traffic and data traffic in a communication system isintroduced. The device comprises a transmitter module configured totransmit the plurality of encrypted voice packets and data packets. Thetransmitter may transmit the plurality of encrypted voice packets of atalking period on a first plurality of subcarriers. The first pluralityof subcarriers may be assigned to the talking period in a set ofsubstantially equally spaced subframes. There may be no guard bandbetween any two subcarriers in the first plurality of subcarriers. Insome other embodiments, the subframes for transmission may not beequally spaced. The base station scheduler may make the decision onwhich subframe is used for packet transmission. A base station mayschedule the first transmission of voice packets in equally spacedsubframes, and dynamically schedule retransmissions of voice packets.The retransmission packets may or may not be in equally spacedsubframes. If a voice packet is not successfully decoded in thereceiver, the transmitter may retransmit the voice packet using HARQand/or ARQ retransmission techniques.

The transmitter may transmit a first subset of the plurality ofencrypted data packets on a second plurality of subcarriers in a firsttime period and a second subset of the plurality of encrypted datapackets on a third plurality of subcarriers in a second time periodaccording to a scheduler decision. The scheduler may considerconstraints for transmission of data packets such as: the first timeperiod and the second time period may not overlap; there may be no guardband between any two subcarriers in the second plurality of subcarriers;there may be at least a guard band between at least two subcarriers inthe third plurality of subcarriers; a combination of the above, and/orthe like.

According to some of the various embodiments, a device for receiving ofvoice traffic and data traffic in a communication system is introduced.The device may comprise a receiver configured to receive the pluralityof encrypted voice packets and data packets. The receiver may receivethe plurality of encrypted voice packets of a talking period on a firstplurality of subcarriers assigned to the talking period. The firstplurality of subcarriers may be assigned in a set of equally spacedsubframes. There may be no guard band between any two subcarriers in thefirst plurality of subcarriers.

The receiver may receive a first subset of the plurality of encrypteddata packets on a second plurality of subcarriers in a first time periodand a second subset of the plurality of encrypted data packets on athird plurality of subcarriers in a second time period according to abase station packet scheduler decision. The scheduler may considerconstraints such as: the first time period and the second time periodmay not overlap; there may be no guard band between any two subcarriersin the second plurality of subcarriers; there may be at least a guardband between at least two subcarriers in the third plurality ofsubcarriers; a combination of the above, and/or the like.

According to some of the various embodiments, a transmitter may transmitthe plurality of encrypted voice packets of a talking period on a firstplurality of subcarriers assigned to the talking period. For each of theplurality of encrypted voice packets of the talking period, a first partmay be transmitted on a first subset of the first plurality ofsubcarriers in a first time period, and a second part may be transmittedon a second subset of the first plurality of subcarriers in a secondtime period. The transmitter may transmit the voice packets consideringconditions such as: the first time period and the second time period maynot overlap; the first subset of the first plurality of subcarriers andthe second subset of the first plurality of subcarriers may bedifferent; the first subset of the first plurality of subcarriers mayconsist of a plurality of contiguous subcarriers; the second subset ofthe first plurality of subcarriers may consist of a plurality ofcontiguous subcarriers; a combination of the above, and/or the like.

While at least some of the plurality of encrypted voice packets aretransmitted, the transmitter may transmit a third subset of theplurality of encrypted data packets on a third plurality of subcarriersin a third time period and a fourth subset of the plurality of encrypteddata packets on a fourth plurality of subcarriers in a fourth timeperiod according to a scheduler decision. The transmitter may transmitthe data packets considering conditions such as: the third time periodand the fourth time period may not overlap; there may be no guard bandbetween any two subcarriers in the third plurality of subcarriers; theremay be at least a guard band between at least two subcarriers in thefourth plurality of subcarriers; a combination of the above, and/or thelike.

According to some of the various embodiments, the voice packets may betransmitted on subcarriers of a first carrier. The third subset of theplurality of encrypted data packets may be transmitted on subcarriers ofthe same first carrier as the voice packets. Voice packets and datapackets may use different subcarriers. After the third time period thebase station may transmit an activation command to the wireless deviceto activate at least one additional carrier. The fourth subset of theplurality of encrypted data packets may be transmitted on subcarriers ofthe first carrier and at least one of the at least one additionalcarrier. After the activation of the additional carriers, the voicepackets of the talking period may be transmitted on the first carrier.Transmission of subsequent talking periods may also be on subcarriers ofthe first carrier. Data packets may be transmitted on the first carrierand at least one of the at least one additional carrier. Voice packetsof subsequent talking periods may be transmitted on other carriers,depending on channel condition, mobility of the wireless device, or loadbalancing. In an example embodiment, data traffic may be IMS datatraffic, HTTP traffic, RTP traffic, and/or the like.

According to some of the various embodiments, the base station maytransmit at least one control message to the wireless device on thefirst carrier. The base station may configure measurement parameters ofthe wireless device. The measurement configuration may triggermeasurements of signal quality of at least one additional carrier in theplurality of carriers. The base station may receive at least onemeasurement report from the wireless device in response to the secondcontrol message. The at least one measurement report may comprise signalquality information of a first plurality of OFDM subcarriers of at leastone additional carrier. The base station may transmit an activationcommand to the wireless device, if the at least one measurement reportindicates an acceptable signal quality for a second carrier in the atleast one additional carrier. The activation command activating thesecond carrier for the wireless device. The base station may transmitthe fourth subset of the plurality of data packets to the wirelessdevice on a plurality of OFDM subcarriers in the first carrier and thesecond carrier.

The method to assign encrypted data packets to the third subset orfourth subset may be executed by the MAC layer scheduler. The decisionon assigning a packet to the third or fourth subset may be made based ondata packet size, resources required for transmission of data packets(number of resource blocks), modulation and coding assigned to each datapacket, QoS required by the data packets (i.e. QoS parameters assignedto data packet bearer), the service class of the subscriber transmittingor receiving the data packet, subscriber device capability, acombination of the above and/or the like. For example, data packetstransmitted to a device with limited capability may be assigned to thefirst carrier, and data packets transmitted to a device with moreelaborate capabilities may be assigned to first and at least oneadditional carrier.

According to some of the various embodiments, the receiver may receivethe plurality of encrypted voice packets of a talking period on a firstplurality of subcarriers assigned to the talking period. For each of theplurality of encrypted voice packets of the talking period, a first partmay be received on a first subset of the first plurality of subcarriersin a first time period, and a second part may be received on a secondsubset of the first plurality of subcarriers in a second time period.The receiver may receive the voice packets using considering such as:the first time period and the second time period may not overlap; thefirst subset of the first plurality of subcarriers and the second subsetof the first plurality of subcarriers may be different; the first subsetof the first plurality of subcarriers may consist of a plurality ofcontiguous subcarriers; the second subset of the first plurality ofsubcarriers may consist of a plurality of contiguous subcarriers; acombination of the above and/or the like.

While at least some of the plurality of encrypted voice packets arereceived, the receive may receive a third subset of the plurality ofencrypted data packets on a third plurality of subcarriers in a thirdtime period and a fourth subset of the plurality of encrypted datapackets on a fourth plurality of subcarriers in a fourth time periodaccording to a base station packet scheduler decision. The receive maytransmit the data packets considering conditions such as: the third timeperiod and the fourth time period do not overlap; there is no guard bandbetween any two subcarriers in the third plurality of subcarriers; thereis at least a guard band between at least two subcarriers in the fourthplurality of subcarriers; a combination of the above, and/or the like.

The method to assign encrypted data packets to the third subset orfourth subset may be executed by the MAC layer scheduler. The decisionon assigning a packet to the third or fourth subset may be made based ondata packet size, resources required for transmission of data packets(number of resource blocks), modulation and coding assigned to each datapacket, QoS required by the data packets (i.e. QoS parameters assignedto data packet bearer), the service class of the subscriber transmittingor receiving the data packet, subscriber device capability, acombination of the above, and/or the like. For example, data packetsreceived from a device with limited capability may be assigned to afirst carrier, and data packets received from a device withmulti-carrier capabilities may be assigned to a second and oneadditional carrier.

FIG. 8 depicts an example message flow between a base station 802, awireless device 801 and one or more servers 808 . . . 809, as per anaspect of an embodiment of the present invention. The base station 802may transmit at least a first message 803 comprising a field describingcontent to the wireless device 801 over a first plurality of subcarriersof a first carrier in the plurality of carriers. There may be no guardband between any two subcarriers in the first plurality of subcarriers.The content descriptor may describe content residing on a server(s) 808. . . 809 in a communication network. The content may or may not resideon the server(s) 808 . . . 809 originating the first message.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a first messagemay be an MMS notification informing a mobile terminal user aboutavailable content. The MMS notification message may include MMS headers.Content may not be present in the MMS notification message. The purposeof the notification may be to allow a client to automatically fetch amulti-media content (MM) from the location indicated in thenotification. In another example, the first messages may include ahyperlink in/to a web page informing the wireless device user about thepossibility of requesting more information, for example, a hyperlink toa video, a file download link, a web page link, and/or the like. Inanother example, the first message may include a list of available videoclips, multimedia channels, computer games, and/or the like. In anotherexample, the first message may include an email or file name. In anotherexample, the first message may be a part of IMS signaling to set up acall.

A message in the example embodiments may be referred to a messagegenerated by an application server and transmitted to the wirelessdevice via a base station. A message may be fragmented to multiplepackets during the transmission in a communication network. For example,a base station may fragment the message into multiple MAC packets beforetransmission. The message may include some basic information about thedata traffic content, such as: title, program, content size, contentname, and/or the like. The content may be predetermined contentpre-stored on a server. Examples of data content traffic include:multimedia file(s), data file(s), data object(s) in a database, http webpage(s), live video transmission(s), a combination of the above, and/orthe like. In another embodiment, the content may be a live streamingmedia that may not be pre-stored on the server. In some exampleembodiments, the base station and server may not transmit the firstmessage. In these example embodiments, the base station may receive atleast a second message from a wireless device without sending the firstmessage. A base station may, selectively, based on one or morecriterion, transmit a first message on one carrier. The one or morecriterion may comprise the size of the first message. For example, ifthe first message is a large message or comprises content, the entiremessage may not be transmitted on a first carrier. The base station may,selectively, transmit a first part of the message on a first downlinkcarrier, and the base station may originate an activation command beforetransmitting a second part of the message. The activation command mayalso be transmitted on the first downlink carrier. The wireless devicemay transmit at least one feedback or response message to a server viathe base station before the second part of the first message is receivedby the wireless device. The feedback or response message may betransmitted on subcarriers of a first uplink carrier. There may be noguard band between subcarriers used for transmission of the response orfeedback message. The first uplink carrier may correspond to the firstdownlink carrier.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the server 808. . . 809 may receive at least a second message 804 from the wirelessdevice 801 requesting for content via a base station. The request may bea packet directly or indirectly triggering the transmission of thecontent from the server. For example, the request may be an HTTPrequest, a request to receive MMS content, a request to receive an emailattachment file, a request to receive the media content of a TV channel,a request to download a file, a request to start a computer game, acombination of the above, and/or the like.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the basestation 802 may receive at least one second message on a plurality ofsubcarriers. There may be no guard band between any two subcarriers inthe plurality of subcarriers. In an example embodiment, the secondmessage may be segmented into MAC packets or transmitted as one segmentby a wireless device to the base station. A first part of a segment ofthe second message may be received on a first subset of a plurality ofsubcarriers in a first time period, and a second part of the segment maybe received on a second subset of the plurality of subcarriers in asecond time period. A segment may, for example, be a MAC transportblock. The receiver may receive the segment considering conditions suchas: the first time period and the second time period may not overlap;the first subset of the plurality of subcarriers and the second subsetof the plurality of subcarriers may not entirely overlap; the firstsubset of the plurality of subcarriers may consist of a plurality ofcontiguous subcarriers; the second subset of the plurality ofsubcarriers may consist of a plurality of contiguous subcarriers; or thelike. The base station may, selectively, based on one or more criterion,receive the second message on one carrier. One or more criteria mayinclude the size of the second message.

The base station 802 may transmit a first plurality of content packets805 to the wireless device over a second plurality of subcarriers of thefirst carrier. There may be no guard band between any two subcarriers inthe second plurality of subcarriers. The first plurality of packets mayinclude a first portion of the content that originated from the server.The content packets may originate from a network server 808 . . . 809.The base station 802 may transmit an activation command 806 originatedfrom the base station. The activation command may be configured to causethe activation of at least one additional carrier in the plurality ofcarriers. The additional carrier may be activated within a time period(activation period) after the activation message is received by thewireless device. In an example embodiment, at least one additionalcarrier may be activated approximately 8 msec after the activationmessage is received. During this activation period, the base station maytransmit packets on the first carrier, and may not transmit any packetson additional carrier(s). In another example embodiment, the basestation may not transmit any packets during the activation period, andthen may transmit packets after the activation period (when additionalcarrier(s) is/are activated).

The base station 802 may transmit a second plurality of packets 807 towireless device 801 over the first carrier and additional carrier(s)over a third plurality of subcarriers. There may be at least a guardband between at least two subcarriers in the third plurality ofsubcarriers. The second plurality of packets may include a secondportion of the content. The first portion of the content may betransmitted in a first time period and the second portion of the contentmay be transmitted in a second time period. The transmitter may considerconstraints in transmitting the data packets such as: the first timeperiod and the second time period may not overlap; the first time periodmay be before the second time period; a combination of the above, and/orthe like. The first portion of the data traffic may be transmittedbefore the second portion of the data traffic.

The first plurality of packets 805 and second plurality of packets 807may be transmitted through the same radio bearer and may require thesame quality of service requirements. The decision of activatingadditional carriers may be made by the base station packet scheduler andmay or may not be based on the packet transmission rate or transmissionrate variations of the content originated from the server. Theactivation decision may be made locally by the base station packetscheduler based on information available to the scheduler, such ascarrier load, size of buffer that queues packets for transmission to thewireless device, and/or the like. The scheduler may initially transmitcontent on a first carrier and then later may add additional carrier(s)for content packet transmission.

The server content traffic may be segmented into a plurality of MACpackets by the base station before transmission. The packets may includeadditional headers added by the base station, and may be furtherprocessed by the base station (for example, may be coded, encrypted,modulated and/or the like). The packets (or transport blocks) mayconsist of a first subset and a second subset. The first subset may betransmitted over the first carrier and the second subset may betransmitted over additional carrier(s). A scheduling control packet maybe transmitted before each MAC packet in the first plurality of packetsand the second plurality of packets is transmitted. The schedulingcontrol packet may include information about the subcarriers used forpacket transmission.

A first message, for example, may be an application layer message or atransport layer message, and/or the like. The base station may receivethe first message from a network node, such as: a media server, an httpserver, an application server, and/or the like. The message may beoriginated from the server, or may be originated from another networknode. The base station may employ PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY layers to process thefirst message before transmission. The first message may describe thecontent. For example, the first message may describe the content byproviding one or more of: content title, size, duration, contentcategory, encoding, and/or the like.

A second message, for example, may be an application layer message or atransport layer message, and/or the like. The base station may receivethe first message employing PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY layers. The base stationmay transmit the received second message to a network node, such as: amedia server, an http server, an application server, and/or the like.

The base station may receive the content originated from a networkserver. The first portion and the second portion of the data traffic maybe encrypted, encoded, and/or modulated before being transmitted by thebase station. The content traffic may be segmented by layer 2 of thebase station. For example, a first plurality of packets may include afirst portion of the content in the form of segmented, encrypted,encoded, and/or modulated data.

Transmitting a plurality of packets to a wireless device over aplurality of subcarriers may imply that a first subset of the packetsmay be transmitted over a first subset of the subcarriers and a secondsubset of the packets may be transmitted over a second subset of thesubcarriers at the same or different subframes. Transmitting a pluralityof packets to a wireless device over a first carrier and at least oneadditional carrier may imply that a first subset of the packets may betransmitted over the first carrier and a second subset of the packetsmay be transmitted over the at least one additional carrier at the sameor different subframes.

The activation command by the base station may cause activation of acell. A cell may comprise a downlink carrier and zero or one uplinkcarrier employed for data transmission. This may be referred toactivating a carrier (downlink and/or uplink) in this specification. Inactual implementation the MAC activation command may activate a cell,and cell activation may include carrier activation. The activationprocess may be controlled by base station MAC layer, and is generallyperformed selectively based on one or more criteria. The disclosedmechanism may be performed when certain criteria for the first message,second message, the content traffic, other wireless device applicationand/or the like are met. Example criteria may be based, at least inpart, on message size, content size, content bit rate, and/or the like.When the one or more criteria are met, then the example embodiments maybe applied. Therefore, it may be possible to implement exampleembodiments that selectively implement disclosed protocols.

Embodiments may be configured to operate as needed. The method may beapplicable when the wireless device connects to the base station and oneprimary carrier is initially active. If during the initial connectionwith a server via a base station, more than one carrier is alreadyactive, then some of the example embodiments may refrain from performingdisclosed setups. When other applications are running in parallel duringthe initial connection with the server, the traffic of otherapplications may cause a carrier activation process. If the trafficgenerated by other applications trigger a carrier activation, then thecarrier activation in the example embodiments may not be needed. In anexample, the activation command may be included in the packetstransmitted by other applications. In another example, the activationcommand may be transmitted as a stand-alone packet or may be included ina packet. In these examples, the plurality of data packets may not needto include the activation command, and may include a portion of thecontent traffic originated by a server.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wirelessdevice may receive a first message comprising a field describing thecontent from a server via a base station over a first plurality ofsubcarriers of a first downlink carrier in the plurality of carriers.There may be no guard band between any two subcarriers in the firstplurality of subcarriers. The wireless device may transmit a secondmessage to the base station requesting content. In some exampleembodiments, the wireless device may not receive the first message. Thewireless device may transmit the second message to the server via thebase station without sending the first message. The second message maybe transmitted on a first uplink carrier corresponding to the firstdownlink carrier.

The wireless device may transmit at least a second message on aplurality of subcarriers. There may be no guard band between any twosubcarriers in the plurality of subcarriers. In an example embodiment,the second message may be, selectively, segmented by the wireless deviceinto one or more MAC packets before transmission. A first part of a MACpacket may be transmitted on a first subset of a plurality ofsubcarriers in a first time period, and a second part of the MAC packetmay be transmitted on a second subset of the plurality of subcarriers ina second time period. The transmitter may transmit the second messageconsidering conditions such as: the first time period and the secondtime period may not overlap; the first subset of the plurality ofsubcarriers and the second subset of the plurality of subcarriers maynot entirely overlap; the first subset of the plurality of subcarriersmay consist of a plurality of contiguous subcarriers; the second subsetof the plurality of subcarriers may consist of a plurality of contiguoussubcarriers; a combination of the above and/or the like.

The wireless device may receive a first plurality of content packetsfrom the server via the base station over a second plurality ofsubcarriers of the first carrier. The content traffic transmitted andreceived by the base station may be processed before being forwarded bythe base station. The base station may segment, encrypt, encode, addheaders, and/or the like, to the received content traffic beforetransmitting the content traffic as a plurality of packets to thewireless device. There may be no guard band between any two subcarriersin the second plurality of subcarriers. The first plurality of packetsmay comprise a first portion of the data traffic originated from theserver. The base station may transmit an activation command to thewireless device. The activation command may be generated by the basestation. The activation command may be comprised in a packet in one ofthe first plurality of packets and then be transmitted. The activationcommand may be comprised in a MAC packet subheader and transmitted as aMAC command. The activation command may be configured to cause theactivation of at least one additional carrier in the plurality ofcarriers. The additional carrier may be activated within a time period(activation period) after the activation message is received by thewireless device. In an example embodiment, the second carrier may beactivated approximately 8 msec after the activation message is received.During this activation period, the wireless device may receive packetson the first carrier, and may not receive any packets on additionalcarrier(s). In another example embodiment, the wireless device may notreceive any packets during the activation period, and then may receivepackets after the activation period (when additional carrier(s) is/areactivated).

The wireless device may receive a second plurality of content packetsfrom the base station over the first carrier and one or more of theadditional carrier(s) over a third plurality of subcarriers. There maybe at least a guard band between at least two subcarriers in the thirdplurality of subcarriers. The second plurality of packets may comprise asecond portion of the content originated from the server. The firstportion of the content may be received in a first time period and thesecond portion of the content may be received in a second time period.The receiver may receive the data packets considering constraints suchas: the first time period and the second time period may not overlap;the first time period may be before the second time period, acombination of the above, and/or the like. The first portion of thecontent may be received before the second portion of the content.

The second plurality of MAC content packets may consist of a firstsubset and a second subset. The first subset may be received over thefirst carrier and the second subset may be received over one or more ofthe additional carrier(s). A scheduling control packet may be receivedbefore each packet in the first plurality of packets and the secondplurality of packets is received. The scheduling control packet mayinclude information about transmission format and the subcarriers usedfor packet reception.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the packets inthe first plurality of packets and the second plurality of packets maybe encrypted packets. Data packets may be encrypted before transmissionto secure the packets from unwanted receivers. Content traffic may beencrypted before segmentation into MAC packets. The desired recipientmay be able to decrypt the packets after re-assembly. The firstplurality of packets and the second plurality of packets could beencrypted using an encryption key and at least one parameter thatchanges substantially rapidly over time. This encryption mechanismprovides a transmission that could not be easily eavesdropped byunwanted receivers. Employing additional parameters in encryption modulethat changes substantially rapidly over time enhances the securitymechanism. An example varying parameter could be any types of systemcounter. The encryption may be provided by the PDCP layer between thetransmitter and receiver. Additional overhead added to the transmissionpackets by the lower layers such as RLC, MAC, and Physical layer may notbe encrypted before transmission. In the wireless device, the pluralityof encrypted data packets may be decrypted using a first decryption keyand at least one first parameter. The plurality of data packets may bedecrypted after re-assembly and using an additional parameter thatchanges substantially rapidly over time.

The activation command transmitted by the base station may betransmitted to the wireless device without encryption. The base stationpacket scheduler may make the decision on transmitting the activationcommand. The first plurality of subcarriers, second plurality ofsubcarriers and third plurality of subcarriers may be a plurality ofOFDM subcarriers. The base station may deactivate the activation state(corresponding to a wireless device) of one of the additionalcarrier(s), if a timer associated with the additional carrier expiresafter a last content packet queued for transmission over one of theadditional carrier(s) is transmitted. The wireless device maydeactivating the state of one of the additional carrier(s), if a timerassociated with one of the additional carrier(s) expires after a lastcontent packet queued for transmission over one of the additionalcarrier(s) is received. A radio bearer may be established between thewireless device and the wireless network. The first message, the secondmessage, the first portion of the data traffic, and the second portionof the traffic data may be transmitted and received by the base stationand the wireless device over the same radio bearer. Such a schedulingalgorithm may enable the base station to assign subcarriers for packettransmission to increase bandwidth efficiency in the system. Thisproposed transmission mechanism may provide a set of constraints forassigning wireless physical resources to data packet transmission thatmay result in increased overall air interface capacity.

The wireless device may be preconfigured with one or more carriers. Whenthe base station is configured with more than one carrier, the basestation may activate and deactivate the configured carriers. Therefore,configuration and activation of a carrier may be performed separately.One of the carriers (the primary carrier) may always be activated. Othercarriers may be configured in the wireless device and may be deactivatedby default and may be activated by base station when needed. The basestation may be configured to cause the activation and deactivation ofcarriers by sending the activation/deactivation MAC control element. TheUE may maintain a carrier deactivation timer per configured and activecarrier and may deactivate the associated carrier upon the timer expiry.The same initial timer value may apply to each instance of the carrierdeactivation timer and the initial value of the timer may be configuredby the network. The configured carriers (unless the primary carrier) maybe initially deactivated upon addition and after a handover.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, if an LTEwireless device receives an activation/deactivation MAC control elementcausing activation of a carrier, the wireless device may activate thecarrier, and may apply normal carrier operation comprising at least oneof: sounding reference signal transmissions on the carrier, CQI/PMI/RIreporting for the carrier, PDCCH monitoring on the carrier, PDCCHmonitoring for the carrier, start or restart the carrier deactivationtimer associated with the carrier, a combination of the above, and/orthe like. If the wireless device receives an activation/deactivation MACcontrol element causing deactivation of a carrier, or if the carrierdeactivation timer associated with the activated carrier expires, thebase station and/or terminal may change the state (associated with thewireless device) of the carrier to in-active, and may stop the carrierdeactivation timer associated with the carrier, and/or may flush allHARQ buffers associated with the carrier.

If PDCCH on the activated carrier indicates an uplink grant or downlinkassignment, or if PDCCH on a carrier scheduling the activated carrierindicates an uplink grant or a downlink assignment for the activatedcarrier, then the wireless device may restart the carrier deactivationtimer associated with the carrier. When a carrier is deactivated, thewireless device may not transmit SRS for the carrier, may not reportCQI/PMI/RI for the carrier, may not transmit on UL-SCH for the carrier,may not monitor the PDCCH on the carrier, and/or may not monitor thePDCCH for the carrier.

The method to assign the first subcarriers, second subcarriers and thirdsubcarriers to MAC packets may be executed by the MAC layer packetscheduler. The decision on assigning subcarriers to a packettransmission may be made based on data packet size, resources requiredfor transmission of data packets (number of radio resource blocks),modulation and coding assigned to each data packet, QoS required by thedata packets (i.e. QoS parameters assigned to data packet bearer), theservice class of the subscriber receiving the data packet, subscriberdevice capability, a combination of the above, and/or the like.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the packets inthe downlink may be transmitted via downlink physical channels. Thecarrying packets in the uplink may be transmitted via uplink physicalchannels. The baseband data representing a downlink physical channel maybe defined in terms of at least one of the following actions: scramblingof coded bits in codewords to be transmitted on a physical channel;modulation of scrambled bits to generate complex-valued modulationsymbols; mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbols onto one orseveral transmission layers; precoding of the complex-valued modulationsymbols on layer(s) for transmission on the antenna port(s); mapping ofcomplex-valued modulation symbols for antenna port(s) to resourceelements; and/or generation of complex-valued time-domain OFDM signal(s)for antenna port(s).

Codeword, transmitted on the physical channel in one subframe, may bescrambled prior to modulation, resulting in a block of scrambled bits.The scrambling sequence generator may be initialized at the start ofsubframe(s). Codeword(s) may be modulated using QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM,128QAM, and/or the like resulting in a block of complex-valuedmodulation symbols. The complex-valued modulation symbols for codewordsto be transmitted may be mapped onto one or several layers. Fortransmission on a single antenna port, a single layer may be used. Forspatial multiplexing, the number of layers may be less than or equal tothe number of antenna port(s) used for transmission of the physicalchannel. The case of a single codeword mapped to multiple layers may beapplicable when the number of cell-specific reference signals is four orwhen the number of UE-specific reference signals is two or larger. Fortransmit diversity, there may be one codeword and the number of layersmay be equal to the number of antenna port(s) used for transmission ofthe physical channel.

The precoder may receive a block of vectors from the layer mapping andgenerate a block of vectors to be mapped onto resources on the antennaport(s). Precoding for spatial multiplexing using antenna port(s) withcell-specific reference signals may be used in combination with layermapping for spatial multiplexing. Spatial multiplexing may support twoor four antenna ports and the set of antenna ports used may be {0,1} or{0, 1, 2, 3}. Precoding for transmit diversity may be used incombination with layer mapping for transmit diversity. The precodingoperation for transmit diversity may be defined for two and four antennaports. Precoding for spatial multiplexing using antenna ports withUE-specific reference signals may also, for example, be used incombination with layer mapping for spatial multiplexing. Spatialmultiplexing using antenna ports with UE-specific reference signals maysupport up to eight antenna ports. Reference signals may be pre-definedsignals that may be used by the receiver for decoding the receivedphysical signal, estimating the channel state, and/or other purposes.

Common reference signal(s) may be transmitted in physical antennaport(s). Common reference signal(s) may be cell-specific referencesignal(s) (RS) used for demodulation and/or measurement purposes.Channel estimation accuracy using common reference signal(s) may bereasonable for demodulation (high RS density). Common referencesignal(s) may be defined for LTE technologies, LTE-advancedtechnologies, and/or the like. Demodulation reference signal(s) may betransmitted in virtual antenna port(s) (i.e., layer or stream). Channelestimation accuracy using demodulation reference signal(s) may bereasonable within allocated time/frequency resources. Demodulationreference signal(s) may be defined for LTE-advanced technology and maynot be applicable to LTE technology. Measurement reference signal(s),may also called CSI (channel state information) reference signal(s), maybe transmitted in physical antenna port(s) or virtualized antennaport(s). Measurement reference signal(s) may be Cell-specific RS usedfor measurement purposes. Channel estimation accuracy may be relativelylower than demodulation RS. CSI reference signal(s) may be defined forLTE-advanced technology and may not be applicable to LTE technology.

In at least one of the various embodiments, uplink physical channel(s)may correspond to a set of resource elements carrying informationoriginating from higher layers. The following example uplink physicalchannel(s) may be defined for uplink: a) Physical Uplink Shared Channel(PUSCH), b) Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), c) Physical RandomAccess Channel (PRACH), and/or the like. Uplink physical signal(s) maybe used by the physical layer and may not carry information originatingfrom higher layers. For example, reference signal(s) may be consideredas uplink physical signal(s). Transmitted signal(s) in slot(s) may bedescribed by one or several resource grids including, for example,subcarriers and SC-FDMA or OFDMA symbols. Antenna port(s) may be definedsuch that the channel over which symbol(s) on antenna port(s) may beconveyed and/or inferred from the channel over which other symbol(s) onthe same antenna port(s) is/are conveyed. There may be one resource gridper antenna port. The antenna port(s) used for transmission of physicalchannel(s) or signal(s) may depend on the number of antenna port(s)configured for the physical channel(s) or signal(s).

Element(s) in a resource grid may be called a resource element. Aphysical resource block may be defined as N consecutive SC-FDMA symbolsin the time domain and/or M consecutive subcarriers in the frequencydomain, wherein M and N may be pre-defined integer values. Physicalresource block(s) in uplink(s) may comprise of M×N resource elements.For example, a physical resource block may correspond to one slot in thetime domain and 180 kHz in the frequency domain. Baseband signal(s)representing the physical uplink shared channel may be defined in termsof: a) scrambling, b) modulation of scrambled bits to generatecomplex-valued symbols, c) mapping of complex-valued modulation symbolsonto one or several transmission layers, d) transform precoding togenerate complex-valued symbols, e) precoding of complex-valued symbols,f) mapping of precoded complex-valued symbols to resource elements, g)generation of complex-valued time-domain SC-FDMA signal(s) for antennaport(s), and/or the like.

For codeword(s), block(s) of bits may be scrambled with UE-specificscrambling sequence(s) prior to modulation, resulting in block(s) ofscrambled bits. Complex-valued modulation symbols for codeword(s) to betransmitted may be mapped onto one, two, or more layers. For spatialmultiplexing, layer mapping(s) may be performed according to pre-definedformula (s). The number of layers may be less than or equal to thenumber of antenna port(s) used for transmission of physical uplinkshared channel(s). The example of a single codeword mapped to multiplelayers may be applicable when the number of antenna port(s) used forPUSCH is, for example, four. For layer(s), the block of complex-valuedsymbols may be divided into multiple sets, each corresponding to oneSC-FDMA symbol. Transform precoding may be applied. For antenna port(s)used for transmission of the PUSCH in a subframe, block(s) ofcomplex-valued symbols may be multiplied with an amplitude scalingfactor in order to conform to a required transmit power, and mapped insequence to physical resource block(s) on antenna port(s) and assignedfor transmission of PUSCH.

According to some of the various embodiments, data may arrive to thecoding unit in the form of two transport blocks every transmission timeinterval (TTI) per UL cell. The following coding actions may beidentified for transport block(s) of an uplink carrier: a) Add CRC tothe transport block, b) Code block segmentation and code block CRCattachment, c) Channel coding of data and control information, d) Ratematching, e) Code block concatenation. f) Multiplexing of data andcontrol information, g) Channel interleaver, h) Error detection may beprovided on UL-SCH (uplink shared channel) transport block(s) through aCyclic Redundancy Check (CRC), and/or the like. Transport block(s) maybe used to calculate CRC parity bits. Code block(s) may be delivered tochannel coding block(s). Code block(s) may be individually turboencoded. Turbo coded block(s) may be delivered to rate matchingblock(s).

Physical uplink control channel(s) (PUCCH) may carry uplink controlinformation. Simultaneous transmission of PUCCH and PUSCH from the sameUE may be supported if enabled by higher layers. For a type 2 framestructure, the PUCCH may not be transmitted in the UpPTS field. PUCCHmay use one resource block in each of the two slots in a subframe.Resources allocated to UE and PUCCH configuration(s) may be transmittedvia control messages. PUCCH may comprise: a) positive and negativeacknowledgements for data packets transmitted at least one downlinkcarrier, b) channel state information for at least one downlink carrier,c) scheduling request, and/or the like.

Physical control format indicator channel(s) (PCFICH) may carryinformation about the number of OFDM symbols used for transmission ofPDCCHs (physical downlink control channel) in a subframe. The set ofOFDM symbols possible to use for PDCCH in a subframe may depend on manyparameters including, for example, downlink carrier bandwidth, in termsof downlink resource blocks. PCFICH transmitted in one subframe may bescrambled with cell-specific sequence(s) prior to modulation, resultingin a block of scrambled bits. A scrambling sequence generator(s) may beinitialized at the start of subframe(s). Block (s) of scrambled bits maybe modulated using QPSK. Block(s) of modulation symbols may be mapped toat least one layer and precoded resulting in a block of vectorsrepresenting the signal for at least one antenna port. Instances ofPCFICH control channel(s) may indicate one of several (e.g. 3) possiblevalues after being decoded. The range of possible values of instance(s)of the first control channel may depend on the first carrier bandwidth.

According to some of the various embodiments, physical downlink controlchannel(s) may carry scheduling assignments and other controlinformation. The number of resource-elements not assigned to PCFICH orPHICH may be assigned to PDCCH. PDCCH may support multiple formats.Multiple PDCCH packets may be transmitted in a subframe. PDCCH may becoded by tail biting convolutionally encoder before transmission. PDCCHbits may be scrambled with a cell-specific sequence prior to modulation,resulting in block(s) of scrambled bits. Scrambling sequencegenerator(s) may be initialized at the start of subframe(s). Block(s) ofscrambled bits may be modulated using QPSK. Block(s) of modulationsymbols may be mapped to at least one layer and precoded resulting in ablock of vectors representing the signal for at least one antenna port.PDCCH may be transmitted on the same set of antenna ports as the PBCH,wherein PBCH is a physical broadcast channel broadcasting at least onebasic system information field.

According to some of the various embodiments, scheduling controlpacket(s) may be transmitted for packet(s) or group(s) of packetstransmitted in downlink shared channel(s). Scheduling control packet(s)may include information about subcarriers used for packettransmission(s). PDCCH may also provide power control commands foruplink channels. OFDM subcarriers that are allocated for transmission ofPDCCH may occupy the bandwidth of downlink carrier(s). PDCCH channel(s)may carry a plurality of downlink control packets in subframe(s). PDCCHmay be transmitted on downlink carrier(s) starting from the first OFDMsymbol of subframe(s), and may occupy up to multiple symbol duration(s)(e.g. 3 or 4).

According to some of the various embodiments, PHICH may carry thehybrid-ARQ (automatic repeat request) ACK/NACK. Multiple PHICHs mappedto the same set of resource elements may constitute a PHICH group, wherePHICHs within the same PHICH group may be separated through differentorthogonal sequences. PHICH resource(s) may be identified by the indexpair (group, sequence), where group(s) may be the PHICH group number(s)and sequence(s) may be the orthogonal sequence index within thegroup(s). For frame structure type 1, the number of PHICH groups maydepend on parameters from higher layers (RRC). For frame structure type2, the number of PHICH groups may vary between downlink subframesaccording to a pre-defined arrangement. Block(s) of bits transmitted onone PHICH in one subframe may be modulated using BPSK or QPSK, resultingin a block(s) of complex-valued modulation symbols. Block(s) ofmodulation symbols may be symbol-wise multiplied with an orthogonalsequence and scrambled, resulting in a sequence of modulation symbols

Other arrangements for PCFICH, PHICH, PDCCH, and/or PDSCH may besupported. The configurations presented here are for example purposes.In another example, resources PCFICH, PHICH, and/or PDCCH radioresources may be transmitted in radio resources including a subset ofsubcarriers and pre-defined time duration in each or some of thesubframes. In an example, PUSCH resource(s) may start from the firstsymbol. In another example embodiment, radio resource configuration(s)for PUSCH, PUCCH, and/or PRACH (physical random access channel) may usea different configuration. For example, channels may be timemultiplexed, or time/frequency multiplexed when mapped to uplink radioresources.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wirelessdevice may transmit packets on an uplink carrier. Uplink packettransmission timing may be calculated in the wireless device using thetiming of synchronization signal(s) received in a downlink. Uponreception of a timing alignment command by the wireless device, thewireless device may adjust its uplink transmission timing. The timingalignment command may indicate the change of the uplink timing relativeto the current uplink timing. The uplink transmission timing for anuplink carrier may be determined using time alignment commands and/ordownlink reference signals.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a timealignment command may indicate timing adjustment for transmission ofsignals on uplink carriers. For example, a time alignment command mayuse 6 bits. Adjustment of the uplink timing by a positive or a negativeamount indicates advancing or delaying the uplink transmission timing bya given amount respectively.

For a timing alignment command received on subframe n, the correspondingadjustment of the timing may be applied with some delay, for example, itmay be applied from the beginning of subframe n+6. When the wirelessdevice's uplink transmissions in subframe n and subframe n+1 areoverlapped due to the timing adjustment, the wireless device maytransmit complete subframe n and may not transmit the overlapped part ofsubframe n+1.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wirelessdevice may include a configurable timer (timeAlignmentTimer) that may beused to control how long the wireless device is considered uplink timealigned. When a timing alignment command MAC control element isreceived, the wireless device may apply the timing alignment command andstart or restart timeAlignmentTimer. The wireless device may not performany uplink transmission except the random access preamble transmissionwhen timeAlignmentTimer is not running or when it exceeds its limit. Thetime alignment command may substantially align frame and subframereception timing of a first uplink carrier and at least one additionaluplink carrier. According to some of the various aspects of embodiments,the time alignment command value range employed during a random accessprocess may be substantially larger than the time alignment commandvalue range during active data transmission. In an example embodiment,uplink transmission timing may be maintained on a per time alignmentgroup (TAG) basis. Carrier(s) may be grouped in TAGs, and TAG(s) mayhave their own downlink timing reference, time alignment timer, and/ortime alignment commands. Group(s) may have their own random accessprocess. Time alignment commands may be directed to a time alignmentgroup. The TAG, including the primary cell may be called a primary TAG(pTAG) and the TAG not including the primary cell may be called asecondary TAG (sTAG).

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, controlmessage(s) or control packet(s) may be scheduled for transmission in aphysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and/or physical uplink sharedchannel PUSCH. PDSCH and PUSCH may carry control and datamessage(s)/packet(s). Control message(s) and/or packet(s) may beprocessed before transmission. For example, the control message(s)and/or packet(s) may be fragmented or multiplexed before transmission. Acontrol message in an upper layer may be processed as a data packet inthe MAC or physical layer. For example, system information block(s) aswell as data traffic may be scheduled for transmission in PDSCH. Datapacket(s) may be encrypted packets.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, data packet(s)may be encrypted before transmission to secure packet(s) from unwantedreceiver(s). Desired recipient(s) may be able to decrypt the packet(s).A first plurality of data packet(s) and/or a second plurality of datapacket(s) may be encrypted using an encryption key and at least oneparameter that may change substantially rapidly over time. Theencryption mechanism may provide a transmission that may not be easilyeavesdropped by unwanted receivers. The encryption mechanism may includeadditional parameter(s) in an encryption module that changessubstantially rapidly in time to enhance the security mechanism. Examplevarying parameter(s) may comprise various types of system counter(s),such as system frame number. Substantially rapidly may for example implychanging on a per subframe, frame, or group of subframes basis.Encryption may be provided by a PDCP layer between the transmitter andreceiver, and/or may be provided by the application layer. Additionaloverhead added to packet(s) by lower layers such as RLC, MAC, and/orPhysical layer may not be encrypted before transmission. In thereceiver, the plurality of encrypted data packet(s) may be decryptedusing a first decryption key and at least one first parameter. Theplurality of data packet(s) may be decrypted using an additionalparameter that changes substantially rapidly over time.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wirelessdevice may be preconfigured with one or more carriers. When the wirelessdevice is configured with more than one carrier, the base station and/orwireless device may activate and/or deactivate the configured carriers.One of the carriers (the primary carrier) may always be activated. Othercarriers may be deactivated by default and/or may be activated by a basestation when needed. A base station may activate and deactivate carriersby sending an activation/deactivation MAC control element. Furthermore,the UE may maintain a carrier deactivation timer per configured carrierand deactivate the associated carrier upon its expiry. The same initialtimer value may apply to instance(s) of the carrier deactivation timer.The initial value of the timer may be configured by a network. Theconfigured carriers (unless the primary carrier) may be initiallydeactivated upon addition and after a handover.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, if a wirelessdevice receives an activation/deactivation MAC control elementactivating the carrier, the wireless device may activate the carrier,and/or may apply normal carrier operation including: sounding referencesignal transmissions on the carrier, CQI (channel quality indicator)/PMI(precoding matrix indicator)/RI (ranking indicator) reporting for thecarrier, PDCCH monitoring on the carrier, PDCCH monitoring for thecarrier, start or restart the carrier deactivation timer associated withthe carrier, and/or the like. If the device receives anactivation/deactivation MAC control element deactivating the carrier,and/or if the carrier deactivation timer associated with the activatedcarrier expires, the base station or device may deactivate the carrier,and may stop the carrier deactivation timer associated with the carrier,and/or may flush HARQ buffers associated with the carrier.

If PDCCH on a carrier scheduling the activated carrier indicates anuplink grant or a downlink assignment for the activated carrier, thedevice may restart the carrier deactivation timer associated with thecarrier. When a carrier is deactivated, the wireless device may nottransmit SRS (sounding reference signal) for the carrier, may not reportCQI/PMI/RI for the carrier, may not transmit on UL-SCH for the carrier,may not monitor the PDCCH on the carrier, and/or may not monitor thePDCCH for the carrier.

A process to assign subcarriers to data packets may be executed by a MAClayer scheduler. The decision on assigning subcarriers to a packet maybe made based on data packet size, resources required for transmissionof data packets (number of radio resource blocks), modulation and codingassigned to data packet(s), QoS required by the data packets (i.e. QoSparameters assigned to data packet bearer), the service class of asubscriber receiving the data packet, or subscriber device capability, acombination of the above, and/or the like.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, packets may bereferred to service data units and/or protocols data units at Layer 1,Layer 2 and/or Layer 3 of the communications network. Layer 2 in an LTEnetwork may include three sub-layers: PDCP sub-layer, RLC sub-layer, andMAC sub-layer. A layer 2 packet may be a PDCP packet, an RLC packet or aMAC layer packet. Layer 3 in an LTE network may be Internet Protocol(IP) layer, and a layer 3 packet may be an IP data packet. Packets maybe transmitted and received via an air interface physical layer. Apacket at the physical layer may be called a transport block. Many ofthe various embodiments may be implemented at one or many differentcommunication network layers. For example, some of the actions may beexecuted by the PDCP layer and some others by the MAC layer.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, subcarriersand/or resource blocks may comprise a plurality of physical subcarriersand/or resource blocks. In another example embodiment, subcarriers maybe a plurality of virtual and/or logical subcarriers and/or resourceblocks.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a radio bearermay be a GBR (guaranteed bit rate) bearer and/or a non-GBR bearer. A GBRand/or guaranteed bit rate bearer may be employed for transfer ofreal-time packets, and/or a non-GBR bearer may be used for transfer ofnon-real-time packets. The non-GBR bearer may be assigned a plurality ofattributes including: a scheduling priority, an allocation and retentionpriority, a portable device aggregate maximum bit rate, and/or the like.These parameters may be used by the scheduler in scheduling non-GBRpackets. GBR bearers may be assigned attributes such as delay, jitter,packet loss parameters, and/or the like.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, subcarriers mayinclude data subcarrier symbols and pilot subcarrier symbols. Pilotsymbols may not carry user data, and may be included in the transmissionto help the receiver to perform synchronization, channel estimationand/or signal quality detection. Base stations and wireless devices(wireless receiver) may use different methods to generate and transmitpilot symbols along with information symbols.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the transmitterin the disclosed embodiments of the present invention may be a wirelessdevice (also called user equipment), a base station (also calledeNodeB), a relay node transmitter, and/or the like. The receiver in thedisclosed embodiments of the present invention may be a wireless device(also called user equipment-UE), a base station (also called eNodeB), arelay node receiver, and/or the like. According to some of the variousaspects of embodiments of the present invention, layer 1 (physicallayer) may be based on OFDMA or SC-FDMA. Time may be divided intoframe(s) with fixed duration. Frame(s) may be divided into substantiallyequally sized subframes, and subframe(s) may be divided intosubstantially equally sized slot(s). A plurality of OFDM or SC-FDMAsymbol(s) may be transmitted in slot(s). OFDMA or SC-FDMA symbol(s) maybe grouped into resource block(s). A scheduler may assign resource(s) inresource block unit(s), and/or a group of resource block unit(s).Physical resource block(s) may be resources in the physical layer, andlogical resource block(s) may be resource block(s) used by the MAClayer. Similar to virtual and physical subcarriers, resource block(s)may be mapped from logical to physical resource block(s). Logicalresource block(s) may be contiguous, but corresponding physical resourceblock(s) may be non-contiguous. Some of the various embodiments of thepresent invention may be implemented at the physical or logical resourceblock level(s).

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, layer 2transmission may include PDCP (packet data convergence protocol), RLC(radio link control), MAC (media access control) sub-layers, and/or thelike. MAC may be responsible for the multiplexing and mapping of logicalchannels to transport channels and vice versa. A MAC layer may performchannel mapping, scheduling, random access channel procedures, uplinktiming maintenance, and/or the like.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the MAC layermay map logical channel(s) carrying RLC PDUs (packet data unit) totransport channel(s). For transmission, multiple SDUs (service dataunit) from logical channel(s) may be mapped to the Transport Block (TB)to be sent over transport channel(s). For reception, TBs from transportchannel(s) may be demultiplexed and assigned to corresponding logicalchannel(s). The MAC layer may perform scheduling related function(s) inboth the uplink and downlink and thus may be responsible for transportformat selection associated with transport channel(s). This may includeHARQ functionality. Since scheduling may be done at the base station,the MAC layer may be responsible for reporting scheduling relatedinformation such as UE (user equipment or wireless device) bufferoccupancy and power headroom. It may also handle prioritization fromboth an inter-UE and intra-UE logical channel perspective. MAC may alsobe responsible for random access procedure(s) for the uplink that may beperformed following either a contention and non-contention basedprocess. UE may need to maintain timing synchronization with cell(s).The MAC layer may perform procedure(s) for periodic synchronization.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the MAC layermay be responsible for the mapping of multiple logical channel(s) totransport channel(s) during transmission(s), and demultiplexing andmapping of transport channel data to logical channel(s) duringreception. A MAC PDU may include of a header that describes the formatof the PDU itself, which may include control element(s), SDUs, Padding,and/or the like. The header may be composed of multiple sub-headers, onefor constituent part(s) of the MAC PDU. The MAC may also operate in atransparent mode, where no header may be pre-pended to the PDU.Activation command(s) may be inserted into packet(s) using a MAC controlelement.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the MAC layerin some wireless device(s) may report buffer size(s) of either a singleLogical Channel Group (LCG) or a group of LCGs to a base station. An LCGmay be a group of logical channels identified by an LCG ID. The mappingof logical channel(s) to LCG may be set up during radio configuration.Buffer status report(s) may be used by a MAC scheduler to assign radioresources for packet transmission from wireless device(s). HARQ and ARQprocesses may be used for packet retransmission to enhance thereliability of radio transmission and reduce the overall probability ofpacket loss.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, an RLCsub-layer may control the applicability and functionality of errorcorrection, concatenation, segmentation, re-segmentation, duplicatedetection, in-sequence delivery, and/or the like. Other functions of RLCmay include protocol error detection and recovery, and/or SDU discard.The RLC sub-layer may receive data from upper layer radio bearer(s)(signaling and data) called service data unit(s) (SDU). The transmissionentities in the RLC layer may convert RLC SDUs to RLC PDU afterperforming functions such as segmentation, concatenation, adding RLCheader(s), and/or the like. In the other direction, receiving entitiesmay receive RLC PDUs from the MAC layer. After performing reordering,the PDUs may be assembled back into RLC SDUs and delivered to the upperlayer. RLC interaction with a MAC layer may include: a) data transferfor uplink and downlink through logical channel(s); b) MAC notifies RLCwhen a transmission opportunity becomes available, including the size oftotal number of RLC PDUs that may be transmitted in the currenttransmission opportunity, and/or c) the MAC entity at the transmittermay inform RLC at the transmitter of HARQ transmission failure.

According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, PDCP (packetdata convergence protocol) may comprise a layer 2 sub-layer on top ofRLC sub-layer. The PDCP may be responsible for a multitude of functions.First, the PDCP layer may transfer user plane and control plane data toand from upper layer(s). PDCP layer may receive SDUs from upper layer(s)and may send PDUs to the lower layer(s). In other direction, PDCP layermay receive PDUs from the lower layer(s) and may send SDUs to upperlayer(s). Second, the PDCP may be responsible for security functions. Itmay apply ciphering (encryption) for user and control plane bearers, ifconfigured. It may also perform integrity protection for control planebearer(s), if configured. Third, the PDCP may perform header compressionservice(s) to improve the efficiency of over the air transmission. Theheader compression may be based on robust header compression (ROHC).ROHC may be performed on VOIP packets. Fourth, the PDCP may beresponsible for in-order delivery of packet(s) and duplicate detectionservice(s) to upper layer(s) after handover(s). After handover, thesource base station may transfer unacknowledged packet(s)s to targetbase station when operating in RLC acknowledged mode (AM). The targetbase station may forward packet(s)s received from the source basestation to the UE (user equipment).

In this specification, “a” and “an” and similar phrases are to beinterpreted as “at least one” and “one or more.” In this specification,the term “may” is to be interpreted as “may, for example,” In otherwords, the term “may” is indicative that the phrase following the term“may” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities thatmay, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments.

Many of the elements described in the disclosed embodiments may beimplemented as modules. A module is defined here as an isolatableelement that performs a defined function and has a defined interface toother elements. The modules described in this disclosure may beimplemented in hardware, software in combination with hardware,firmware, wetware (i.e hardware with a biological element) or acombination thereof, all of which are behaviorally equivalent. Forexample, modules may be implemented as a software routine written in acomputer language configured to be executed by a hardware machine (suchas C, C++, Fortran, Java, Basic, Matlab or the like) or amodeling/simulation program such as Simulink, Stateflow, GNU Octave, orLabVIEWMathScript. Additionally, it may be possible to implement modulesusing physical hardware that incorporates discrete or programmableanalog, digital and/or quantum hardware. Examples of programmablehardware comprise: computers, microcontrollers, microprocessors,application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs); field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs); and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs).Computers, microcontrollers and microprocessors are programmed usinglanguages such as assembly, C, C++ or the like. FPGAs, ASICs and CPLDsare often programmed using hardware description languages (HDL) such asVHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) or Verilog that configureconnections between internal hardware modules with lesser functionalityon a programmable device. Finally, it needs to be emphasized that theabove mentioned technologies are often used in combination to achievethe result of a functional module.

The disclosure of this patent document incorporates material which issubject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection tothe facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or thepatent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Officepatent file or records, for the limited purposes required by law, butotherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example, and notlimitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevantart(s) that various changes in form and detail can be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope. In fact, after reading theabove description, it will be apparent to one skilled in the relevantart(s) how to implement alternative embodiments. Thus, the presentembodiments should not be limited by any of the above describedexemplary embodiments. In particular, it should be noted that, forexample purposes, the above explanation has focused on the example(s)using FDD communication systems. However, one skilled in the art willrecognize that embodiments of the invention may also be implemented inTDD communication systems. The disclosed methods and systems may beimplemented in wireless or wireline systems. The features of variousembodiments presented in this invention may be combined. One or manyfeatures (method or system) of one embodiment may be implemented inother embodiments. Only a limited number of example combinations areshown to indicate to one skilled in the art the possibility of featuresthat may be combined in various embodiments to create enhancedtransmission and reception systems and methods. In particular, it shouldbe noted that, for example purposes, the above explanation has focusedon the example(s) of a encrypted voice and data packets which aretransmitted and received by wireless transceivers. However, one willrecognize that embodiments of the invention could be implemented in asystem, in which packets are not encrypted. In such a system,unencrypted voice and data packets may be transmitted and received asdescribed in this specification.

In addition, it should be understood that any figures which highlightthe functionality and advantages, are presented for example purposesonly. The disclosed architecture is sufficiently flexible andconfigurable, such that it may be utilized in ways other than thatshown. For example, the actions listed in any flowchart may bere-ordered or only optionally used in some embodiments.

Further, the purpose of the Abstract of the Disclosure is to enable theU.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, andespecially the scientists, engineers and practitioners in the art whoare not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determinequickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of thetechnical disclosure of the application. The Abstract of the Disclosureis not intended to be limiting as to the scope in any way.

Finally, it is the applicant's intent that only claims that include theexpress language “means for” or “step for” be interpreted under 35U.S.C. 112, paragraph 6. Claims that do not expressly include the phrase“means for” or “step for” are not to be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112,paragraph 6.

What is claimed is:
 1. A transceiver for voice and data transmissioncomprising: a) one or more communication interfaces; b) one or moreprocessors; and c) memory storing instructions that, when executed,cause said transceiver to: i) transmit a first plurality of encryptedvoice packets of at least one first talking period in a plurality oftalking periods on a first plurality of subcarriers of a first carrierin a plurality of carriers, during a period when encrypted data trafficpackets are transmitted on said plurality of carriers, wherein there isno guard band between any two subcarriers in said first plurality ofsubcarriers; and ii) transmit a first subset of said encrypted datatraffic packets on a second plurality of subcarriers in a first timeperiod and a second subset of said encrypted data traffic packets on athird plurality of subcarriers in a second time period according to abase station MAC layer packet scheduler decision, wherein: (1) saidfirst time period and said second time period do not overlap; (2) thereis no guard band between any two subcarriers in said second plurality ofsubcarriers; and (3) there is at least one guard band between at leasttwo subcarriers in said third plurality of subcarriers.
 2. Thetransceiver of claim 1, wherein said instructions, when executed,further cause said transceiver to transmit each of a second plurality ofencrypted voice packets of at least one second talking period in saidplurality of talking periods on a fourth plurality of subcarriers of asecond carrier in said plurality of carriers, while said encrypted datatraffic packets are transmitted on said plurality of carriers, whereinsaid first carrier is different from said second carrier.
 3. Thetransceiver of claim 1, wherein: a) said first plurality of encryptedvoice packets are encrypted using a first encryption key and at leastone first parameter; b) said plurality of encrypted data traffic packetsare encrypted using said first encryption key and at least one secondparameter; and c) said at least one first parameter is different fromsaid at least one second parameter.
 4. The transceiver of claim 3,wherein said first plurality of encrypted voice packets are encryptedemploying an additional parameter configured to change based on a systemcounter.
 5. The transceiver of claim 3, wherein said plurality ofencrypted data traffic packets are encrypted using an additionalparameter configured to change based on a system counter.
 6. Thetransceiver of claim 1, wherein each of the following plurality ofsubcarriers is a plurality of OFDM subcarriers: said first plurality ofsubcarriers; said second plurality of subcarriers; and said thirdplurality of subcarriers.
 7. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein each ofthe following plurality of subcarriers is a plurality of SC-FDMAsubcarriers: said first plurality of subcarriers; said second pluralityof subcarriers; and said third plurality of subcarriers.
 8. Atransceiver for voice and data transmission comprising: a) one or morecommunication interfaces; b) one or more processors; and c) memorystoring instructions that, when executed, cause said transceiver to: i)receive a first plurality of encrypted voice packets of at least onefirst talking period in a plurality of talking periods on a firstplurality of subcarriers of a first carrier in a plurality of carriers,during a period when encrypted data traffic packets are received on saidplurality of carriers, wherein there is no guard band between any twosubcarriers in said first plurality of subcarriers; and ii) receive afirst subset of said encrypted data traffic packets on a secondplurality of subcarriers in a first time period and a second subset ofsaid encrypted data traffic packets on a third plurality of subcarriersin a second time period according to a base station MAC layer packetscheduler decision, wherein: (1) said first time period and said secondtime period do not overlap; (2) there is no guard band between any twosubcarriers in said second plurality of subcarriers; and (3) there is atleast one guard band between at least two subcarriers in said thirdplurality of subcarriers.
 9. The transceiver of claim 8, wherein each ofthe following plurality of subcarriers is a plurality of physicalsubcarriers: said first plurality of subcarriers; said second pluralityof subcarriers; and said third plurality of subcarriers.
 10. Thetransceiver of claim 8, wherein each of the following plurality ofsubcarriers is a plurality of virtual subcarriers: said first pluralityof subcarriers; said second plurality of subcarriers; and said thirdplurality of subcarriers.
 11. The transceiver of claim 8, wherein saidfirst plurality of encrypted voice packets are mapped to a firstpre-established bearer employing a first packet protocol header of saidfirst plurality of encrypted voice packets, and said plurality ofencrypted data traffic packets are mapped to a second pre-establishedbearer employing a second packet protocol header of said plurality ofencrypted data traffic data packets.
 12. The method of claim 11, whereinsaid first pre-established bearer is a GBR bearer and said secondpre-established bearer is a non-GBR bearer.
 13. The method of claim 11,wherein said second pre-established bearer is assigned a plurality ofattributes including: a) a scheduling priority; b) an allocation andretention priority; and c) a portable device aggregate maximum bit rate.14. The method of claim 8, wherein said first plurality of subcarriers,said second plurality of subcarriers, and said third plurality ofsubcarriers comprises: a) data subcarrier symbols; and b) pilotsubcarrier symbols.
 15. A method for voice and data transmissioncomprising: a) transmitting a first plurality of encrypted voice packetsof at least one first talking period in a plurality of talking periodson a first plurality of subcarriers of a first carrier in a plurality ofcarriers, during a period when encrypted data traffic packets aretransmitted on said plurality of carriers, wherein there is no guardband between any two subcarriers in said first plurality of subcarriers;and b) transmitting a first subset of said encrypted data trafficpackets on a second plurality of subcarriers in a first time period anda second subset of said encrypted data traffic packets on a thirdplurality of subcarriers in a second time period according to a basestation MAC layer packet scheduler decision, wherein: (1) said firsttime period and said second time period do not overlap; (2) there is noguard band between any two subcarriers in said second plurality ofsubcarriers; and (3) there is at least one guard band between at leasttwo subcarriers in said third plurality of subcarriers.
 16. The methodof claim 15, further comprising transmitting each of a second pluralityof encrypted voice packets of at least one second talking period in saidplurality of talking periods on a fourth plurality of subcarriers of asecond carrier in said plurality of carriers, while said encrypted datatraffic packets are transmitted on said plurality of carriers, whereinsaid first carrier is different from said second carrier.
 17. The methodof claim 15, wherein said first plurality of encrypted voice packets aremapped to a first pre-established bearer employing a first packetprotocol header of said first plurality of encrypted voice packets, andsaid plurality of encrypted data traffic packets are mapped to a secondpre-established bearer employing a second packet protocol header of saidplurality of encrypted data traffic data packets.
 18. The method ofclaim 17, wherein said first pre-established bearer is a GBR bearer andsaid second pre-established bearer is a non-GBR bearer.
 19. The methodof claim 17, wherein said second pre-established bearer is assigned aplurality of attributes including: a) a scheduling priority; b) anallocation and retention priority; and c) a portable device aggregatemaximum bit rate.
 20. The method of claim 17, wherein each of thefollowing plurality of subcarriers is a plurality of OFDM subcarriers:said first plurality of subcarriers; said second plurality ofsubcarriers; and said third plurality of subcarriers.